I apologize in advance for this elementary question. I spent several hours yesterday and this morning perusing for answers. So, I'm proud to say - if I missed helpful answers in the FAQs - or if it's been answered 100's of times before - it's not due to laziness, but incompetence.

I have a SVR 2000 which can no longer download the channel directory due to (I believe) compatibility issues with Time Warner digital telephone. So, I'd like to install a network adaptor. I'm hoping one of you sympathetic folks might point me to some very clear directions to help me navigate. Basically, I'd like to know everything from how do you install it, configure it, setup telnet, and use it. (Of course, I don't expect an exhaustive answer - just a link or some hints would be wonderful.)

Here are all the relevant details I can think of:

* Standalone Sony SVR 2000 (series 1, of course). The software is 3001-1010.
* I have the lifetime service plan.
* I've previously installed a bigger hard drive but otherwise it's straight from the factory.
* My primary computer is running XP, but I've considered upgrading to Vista (if that's relevant).
* I don't have easy internet access to my Tivo/television. So I'd like to attempt to use wireless. My linksys wireless router is on my 2nd floor; the Tivo is on the 1st floor. My wife's computer is downstairs on the 1st floor - near the Tivo - and she receives a healthy wireless connection. However, the TiVo is inside a TV stand, crowded by other electronics, and may not receive a good signal. Any thoughts?

Here's what I think I need to do:

* I need to buy a TurboNet card - either wired or wireless. I found it here: http://www.9thtee.com/tivo-sa1.htm
* I need to open the Tivo and plug it in according to directions on 9thtee.com.
(So far so good? Do I need to install drivers, back up A drive on Linux box, partition the hard drive, drill a hole in the TiVo box, etc.? - I've read that I do, and I've read that I don't.)
* And here's where it all falls apart: Then I need to somehow get the network adaptor on my home network, configure it for Telnet, learn how to use TiVoWeb, etc.

If you have any advice you're willing to share, I'd be extremely grateful. (The children have been watching the same Mr. Rogers episode for 2 weeks. )

First off, avoid the wireless card. It's just an adapter that you have to buy a separate PCCard wireless card into. And with the SVR-2000's metal case (I have three), you will run into signal strength problems.

You have two other options (both very good): the TurboNet Card and the CacheCard.

If you were just using the card to get guide information, I would suggest the TurboNet card. Support for this card is already included in the Tivo operating system. You literally just have to install the card and make a couple config changes in the Tivo interface and you are up and running.

The CacheCard has a couple of advantages and a couple of disadvantages. It has a faster network interface than the TurboNet and (if you install RAM) it caches parts of the Tivo database which greatly improves performance of the Tivo user interface, especially if you increase the harddrive capacity of the unit.

The downside is that you need to install drivers for the card. If you want to setup Tivoweb and all the other toys, this is a small amount of additional work.

I did this last year with my old Philips Series 1 after I replaced it with a Series 3 and moved the Series 1 up to my son's game room. I used a used TurboNet wired adapter that I picked up on eBay. As stark mentioned, no drivers are needed. For the Philips model, I did not have to drill a hole as there is a tab that can be hacksawed off to allow routing of the network cable (http://tivo.stevejenkins.com/network...#_Toc101001741). Finally, I too wanted to use wireless so I picked up a refurbished Netgear WGPS606 from eBay which acts as a 4-port wireless bridge. This also allowed me to hook-up my son's XBox to the Internet as well.

Thanks for the tips. Ideally, I'd like to use the CacheCard, but I'm a little skittish of loading the drivers.

It appears that loading the CacheCard drivers into TiVo is quite involved. If I'm understanding what I'm reading correctly - I need to remove the A drive, make a backup the drive <optional>, load the drive into a Unix compatible computer, download/install the driver, update some text config files, etc. Is it really that involved - or can the drivers be loaded without extracting them from the TiVo box? I'd be grateful for any help!

In the meantime, we continue to watch the same episode of Mr. Rogers. How many times must I watch Mr. Rogers wash the same baby elephant?

Thanks again!

John

ps. By the way, in a moment of laziness I thought I might fix the problem by purchasing a Konexx Office Konnector which is supposed to convert digital telephone to analog. In case someone else has the same foolish notion - it seemed like a good idea at the time - I was unable to get TiVo to dial out through the Konnector. So, I will return the unit to Amazon.

I bought a used Sony SVR-2000 with a ethernet cable coming out of the back of it. I connected the cable to my network (which works fine with my series 2, 3 and 4 TiVos ) but how do I make the Tivo call home? I put #401 in the dial prefix box and rebooted, but still fails when I try to dial out ( actually connect to the internet via ethernet.) I see in one forum says I have to put in a comma at the beginning, but doesn't tell me how to do that.
I also set both 'detections' to 'no'.
The guy that sold it to me told me that it worked fine last time he used it.
it has 30011010 software
Is there another way that I make it dial home rather than from the 'phone connection' page?

I bought a used Sony SVR-2000 with a ethernet cable coming out of the back of it. I connected the cable to my network (which works fine with my series 2, 3 and 4 TiVos ) but how do I make the Tivo call home? I put #401 in the dial prefix box and rebooted, but still fails when I try to dial out ( actually connect to the internet via ethernet.) I see in one forum says I have to put in a comma at the beginning, but doesn't tell me how to do that.
I also set both 'detections' to 'no'.
The guy that sold it to me told me that it worked fine last time he used it.
it has 30011010 software
Is there another way that I make it dial home rather than from the 'phone connection' page?

First I said:

I forget which button on the remote does the comma, just like I forget which one does the octothorpe, but when you go into the settings to enter a prefix on an S1, it should show you an illustration of the remote to show which button does which special character.

Then I got curious and started Googling external modem for TiVo stuff, and eventually stumbled upon this old post

"...you enter the comma with the pause button on the remote and you enter the pound symbol with the Enter button on the remote."

and having previously seen a mention of the clear button to get a "star", I suddenly realized that the layout of the bottom part of the TiVo remote is just like a touch-tone keypad--star to the left of the Zero, hashtag/pound sign/octothorpe to the right, and if you think about it, what better key to indicate a comma than the pause key (because a comma indicates a short pause in reading aloud is called for at that point), and since the II symbol that came along with tape recorders isn't (as far as I know) part of ASCII, the best character symbol to indicate the pause key is the comma.

However, you need to open up that Sony and see where and to what the other end of that cable is attached, assuming it is.

I have gotten my SVR2000 to work with Comcast digital, as well as Vonage, by going into the telephone setup, and reducing the modem speed down until I got reliable connects. Except for the initial setup, the daily calls dont take that long. Unless you really need to use the network method, this solution is free.

I didn't see any FAQs for Series 1 and when I do a search for 'Sony ethernet' I get "Sorry - no matches. Please try some different terms." I also tried Sony by itself and Ethernet by itself.
I added a comma to #401 , rebooted and it still says 'failed, couldn't connect'. I am still looking to see how to lower the modem speed and where to put that in, as I am putting the ,#401 in the 'set dial prefix' spot.
I haven't opened the box up yet. I guess that is next if I don't find a way to bring down the baud rate.

I didn't see any FAQs for Series 1 and when I do a search for 'Sony ethernet' I get "Sorry - no matches. Please try some different terms." I also tried Sony by itself and Ethernet by itself.
I added a comma to #401 , rebooted and it still says 'failed, couldn't connect'. I am still looking to see how to lower the modem speed.

If you're using ethernet/internet, there is no modem speed.

(make sure that cable is connected to something inside the TiVo and that the cable itself is still good. You can unsnap the fan and move it out of the way and there's a sort of keystone shaped hole that an RJ-45 plug can go through if you need to run another cable--then you just lean it to the side and snap the fan back in place)

If you're using an external modem connected to the serial jack on the back, you need to be using ,#3xx, where 396=9.6, 319=19, and I think 333 get's you 2.8.8 or 33.3, and 356 is the upper limit at 56k.

If no one ever connected a PC to that S1's serial port and interrupted the boot to set a fixed IP address, you'll need to make sure you're hooking to a router that can offer it a DHCP address.

I think reliable data connections for S1s has become a very low priority for TiVo, Inc. these past few years.

I didn't see any FAQs for Series 1 and when I do a search for 'Sony ethernet' I get "Sorry - no matches. Please try some different terms." I also tried Sony by itself and Ethernet by itself.
I added a comma to #401 , rebooted and it still says 'failed, couldn't connect'. I am still looking to see how to lower the modem speed and where to put that in, as I am putting the ,#401 in the 'set dial prefix' spot.
I haven't opened the box up yet. I guess that is next if I don't find a way to bring down the baud rate.

8. Dialing codes
Want to change the way your Tivo calls home? Read on. All these codes are inserted into the dialing prefix space in the Phone Setup stuff.

,#034 - This will limit the speed of the modem to v.34 (28.8k) which may improve your connections if you have poor lines. If you have a lot of failed calls, this might help. Makes the call take about twice as long, in theory.

,#019 - Same concept as above, but slower. If the above won't work, try this. But beware that it will seriously slow down the connection and make the call that much longer. Like 4 times longer than normal, approximately.

8. Dialing codes
Want to change the way your Tivo calls home? Read on. All these codes are inserted into the dialing prefix space in the Phone Setup stuff.

,#034 - This will limit the speed of the modem to v.34 (28.8k) which may improve your connections if you have poor lines. If you have a lot of failed calls, this might help. Makes the call take about twice as long, in theory.

,#019 - Same concept as above, but slower. If the above won't work, try this. But beware that it will seriously slow down the connection and make the call that much longer. Like 4 times longer than normal, approximately.

I think ,#0xx is for the internal modem only isn't it?

With ,#3xx telling it to use an external modem on the serial port, and ,#401 telling to use Ethernet (which doesn't have different modem speeds from which to choose).